Noble Aspirations and the Government Committee

The original idea behind the Harmony Week commercial was to use real people, not actors, to represent the modern multicultural face of Perth. The ad would feature a Noongar cop, an Asiatic engineer, an African Muslim doctor, and some token white chick. They would all be women (because apparently multiculturalism only applies to women), and they would all somehow express the theme: "Shared Rights, Diverse Cultures".

Somehow, this will be exemplified by the story of four girlfriends who go out to an Italian restaurant in Northbridge to celebrate the graduation of one of their number.

Noble aspirations indeed, and like good intentions, they make great paving stones for the hellbound.

Now, the cop and the doctor had already been cast by the government committee paying for the ad - ok, the cop's on disabilities and her gear is out of date, and the doctor is really a psychologist, but they're real women being really multicultural and very ethnic.

Then Western Power pulled out, citing the calling of elections and the potential for any involvement on their part in the ad to be misconstrued as political advertising, even though the ad will air in mid-March, long after the February election.

So I got cast as the Asiatic engineer. Well, I'm an editor - editor starts and ends with the same letters as engineer, I guess.

Then the government committee informed us that the Muslim doctor would not be involved in their commercial because the Koran expressly forbids Muslim women from being out after dark on the streets of Northbridge. Instead, the committee will arrange for us to use an Indian restaurant down on the Barrack St Jetty. Why losing the doctor means we have to lose the entire Northbridge location is beyond me, but I'm just the editor/engineer.

Originally, the token white girl was a chef in the Italian restaurant. Now she's a chef in the Indian restaurant. No big deal, you'd think.

Except the restaurant is staffed by devout volunteers to raise funds for a Hindu charity, and they're not letting some heathen film crew romp around their kitchens, or play along that a non-Hindu white chick cooks in their kitchen. We still haven't got a Muslim doctor, or even a close approximation thereof, and we're scheduled to film at the jetty in a couple of nights.

I can't wait.